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"There Are Some"

08 Oct 2007 09:37 am

Sen. Barack Obama's global energy initiative drops today, and there are plenty of interesting components, including a nationwide emissions cap and trade regime.

By way of soundbites, Obama intends to say this:

“There are some in this race who actually make the argument that the more time you spend immersed in the broken politics of Washington, the more likely you are to change it. I always find this a little amusing. I know that change makes for good campaign rhetoric, but when these same people had the chance to actually make it happen, they didn’t lead. When they had the chance to stand up and require automakers to raise their fuel standards, they refused. When they had multiple chances to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by investing in renewable fuels that we can literally grow right here in America, they said no.”

Another "there are some" comparison. Now, the cognoscienti understands this to be a reference to Mrs. Hillary, but even those Democratic Primary voters who get that he is making a point have no context to understand what the point is.

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Comments (15)

Marc:

Is Obama in a bit of a Catch-22 here?

It seems that if he doesn't mention Hillary he gets attacked (see above).

And it seems that if he does attack Hillary he gets attacked (see numerous stories that parrot Howard Wolfson's "When did Obama lose his 'politics of hope' belief by attacking my candidate" meme).

So what is a man to do?

Posted by David | October 8, 2007 10:00 AM

I think most voters paying attention, especially in Iowa and New Hampshire, know exactly what he's saying. Recall, these are part of the 48% that didn't vote for Bush last time. They can read between the lines...

Posted by Joe Justice | October 8, 2007 12:35 PM

But his "there are some" comments are already "attacks," they're just veiled attacks that will presumably go over the heads of many voters. Media observers may make the connection and spell it out for the audience, in which case Obama is essentially using reporters and pundits to do the direct attacking for him while he can pretend to be above it all.

Obama's not not comparing himself to his opponents at all, he's not simply laying out his platform and record and allowing voters to make the comparisons themselves. He's just not willing to make his implied comparisons clear enough to be understood by the majority of his audience and giving the impression that he may be more concerned about maintaining some notion of campaign purity than doing the hard work candidates sometimes have to do to get elected, which is hardly reassurring to primary voters who care about such things, given that Obama's never had to demonstrate his ability to win a tough election in the past.

Posted by Dusty | October 8, 2007 12:36 PM

His comparison is pretty clear. What does Obama need to do-call out names, connect the dots and spoon feed the public. We already get that with Bush, and his look where his spoon feeding led. I think its time for America to think and if you can't connect the dots then research the topic and become better informed so that no one can tell you the sky is black, not blue and we need to invade Iraqi.

Posted by sonya | October 8, 2007 1:15 PM

But Obama's dug himself a pretty deep -- and shortsighted -- hole when he promised (claimed?) that he would run on a "Politics of Hope" campaign.

Seriously, how does one do that and still answer their critics without looking like it being an attack and then being called a hypocrite because that was apparently against his promise of following a "Politics of Hope"? It's a vicious circle that only someone inexperienced in campaigning and dangerously shortsighted when it comes to realistic strategy would make.

Like anyone running for President, Obama needs to answer his critics with more than innuendo-laced rhetoric and speak for himself rather than using his wife or the Press to do his dirty work. If he can't say "Hillary says ..." or "Hillary Clinton believes ... ", then how are we to believe he has the backbone and courage to handle the Repuglican Slime Machine when it comes to the General Election?

Posted by ccpup | October 8, 2007 2:25 PM

Obama's trying to walk a tightrope here. On the one hand, he wants to maintain his "politics of hope" nice guy image and maintain decent relations with Hillary for a potential VP nod down the road. On the other hand, he needs to make sure that all the media gasbags who nitpick candidate's personal tics for fun and profit won't pigeonhole him as "too nice" or "walking away from a fight."

Solution: he makes comments that media gasbags know are about Hillary, so they can chatter about how he's attacking Hillary, but there are no sound bytes showing up on YouTube the next day that show him directly attacking Hillary.

It seems to be working, too.

Posted by LaFollette Progressive | October 8, 2007 3:16 PM

Maybe that was self criticism for his 2005 Energy Bill vote.

Posted by AJ | October 8, 2007 3:56 PM

I don't think Obama's indirectness has anything to do with trying to be nice for its own sake. This is smart strategy on his part. First, Iowa voters hate overly negative attacks and the debacle of Dean vs Gephardt on '04 is the proof of that.

Everyone keeps saying that is Obama's "politics of hope" message that is putting him in a box. I don't think so. What is far more important is that he has to be very careful as a Black man in attacking a White woman. If he is preceived as coming on too strong, he would crash and burn because of people's views of gender and race. Just like Hillary feels she needs to support dumb and rash wars in order to prove to the electorate that she is "tough," Obama has to avoid being put in the "angry threatening black Guy" Catergory." All the time I see pundits criticizing Obama for not taking HIllary on more directly, but I think Obama is smart for not heeding their advice.

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